


Lonely Together

by KrastBannert



Series: The Good, the Bad, and the Life in Between [9]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Azula (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Brother-Sister Relationships, F/F, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, I mean technically it's past, POV Azula (Avatar), Past Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar), Past Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Post-Canon, Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, fire siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29369244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrastBannert/pseuds/KrastBannert
Summary: It's been years, so many years, so many decades since that night on Ember Island, since she had gone to her brother for comfort on an impulse for the first time in a long time. And even now when they're old and gray, they still need each other. Except this time, he comes to her.Because even if they're alone in this world, they can be alone together.------Another stolen moment between Zuko and Azula, after their loves have passed away.
Relationships: Azula & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: The Good, the Bad, and the Life in Between [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858354
Comments: 9
Kudos: 31





	Lonely Together

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a follow-up to my other Fire Siblings fic, _[Lonely](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25435039)_.

She knows who it is the moment she hears the knock.

No one else would knock on her door. Not right now. Not this late. Her nieces and nephews, her younger sister and brother-in-law, her own children, they were all fast asleep or on the other side of the world. And...and _she_ is gone. So, there was only one person it could be.

(She almost wants to smile. It reminds her of another night, long ago and miles away. A night in parallel, where they had been the only two awake, where their positions had been reversed. It's blurry, just a shade of a shadow of memory. And yet, it makes her smile each time.

But, she thinks as she walks carefully towards the door, she can't smile. Not today, of all days.)

She can hear his tears, his quiet, choked-back sobs before she even lays a hand on the doorknob. Azula opens the door and gently tugs her big brother across the threshold, gathers him in her arms. It still feels strange, even after all this time - what's it been, eight decades? How had the time gone by? - being the one to initiate their touches. But Zuko, her ZuZu, her dumdum...he needs this.

(So does she, she realizes. She needs this even more than when Mother and Iroh had died, than when...than when her Butterfly had passed.

Perhaps it's because they're the last. The last of a generation. The end of an era.)

Zuko shakes in her arms, presses his face into her shoulder even though he's taller (may Agni damn him forever for getting their parents' height and leaving her with the short gene). She lets him stay there for one, two, three heartbeats. Just long enough to collect herself, to run one hand over his back, to swallow back the tears brimming at the corners of her eyes.

She's cried enough for one day, Azula tells herself as she half-drags, half-carries her brother over to the bed. But that isn't quite true, she knows, because her best friend is gone. Her last words keep replaying, over and over and over, in her mind.

'It's more beautiful than you can imagine.'

Azula knows what she was talking about. The Spirit World. Heaven. Azula still isn't sure she believes it, really. That people go there when they die. But Mai did, and she…she hoped Mai had reached it. Perhaps…perhaps one day they'd meet again, and…and they'd get another chance. To start again.

(There were so many chances, so many that she'd been given over the years. Would she get another? She wasn't sure. Did she deserve it? That…she was almost certain she didn't, even with how far she'd come.

Perhaps if she did, they’d get it right on the first chance this time. And not the second, third, or fourth, like in this life.)

Zuko curls up against her as they sit on the bed, and she can’t do anything but let him, because she knows his pain. She'd lost Ty Lee just a year and a half ago, and the world was still darker. She knows he’ll feel the same. That his heart has a hole, now, one that will never quite fill in. Knows he’ll wake up in the night and reach for her, only to meet an empty space on the side of the bed. That he’ll cry when he sees something that Mai would have liked, or that reminds him of her.

She knows because it happens to her, too.

She wants to be strong for him. Wants to be the rock that he needs, like he was for her. But she can’t be. She can’t be because she has nothing left. Because she had lost her best friend, too, just as Zuko lost his. She finally gives in, buries her face into his hair, digs her fingers into his shoulders just like he's doing to her. His sobs are loud and agonizing, the unending echo of a heart torn to pieces, ripped apart at the seams. 

She is quiet; she cries, but she's quiet. Her sobs are buried, locked in her throat, trapped in her lungs.

(It should have been her, a distant voice in the back of her mind whispers. It should have been her.)

She has no idea how long they sit there, her brother crying into her shoulder. Hours, at least. It could have been _days_ and she wouldn't have noticed. The tears pass, and their breathing evens out, and they're clinging to each other like drowning sailors clinging to floating debris. They don't stir, they don't move a muscle, and again, Azula is reminded of that night in the beach house.

It had been the last good memory she'd had of them together for…years. For years, and years, and years. It had been so much like this: Ty Lee and Mai long fallen asleep, her tucked against her brother. But there's so much that's different, now, too.

Their hair is long and grey, their bodies wrinkled and aching with every movement. They don't flinch or stiffen at each other’s touch. She's not annoyed by his weight, leaning against her. He's not quite so hesitant to be around her, to be this close to her. And she knows (oh, blessed Agni and Ryujin and Izanagi and all the other spirits, she _knows_ ) what the gentle warmth that wraps around her is.

(It’s love. It had taken her too long to learn what it was called, and even longer to convince herself that she was worthy of it.)

"I miss her," Zuko whispers, his voice raspy and dry with age. She knows that, really, he's not just talking about Mai. He's talking about so much more. She looks over at the little shrine in the corner, silhouetted in the morning sunlight. Little tokens of the lives of her wife and her friend are scattered around a long burnt-out incense stick and paintings of each of them in their prime. It doesn’t do either of them justice, but it’s something.

"Me too," she finally murmurs. There's a sharp, sudden pang in her heart as she gazes at the pictures. She knows what it is, this biting, raw, hollow empty feeling in the pit of her gut. It's loneliness. She's well acquainted with it. Her brother, is, too. But it's been years, years, since then, and they both now have to parse through it.

But, she thinks, running a hand through her brother's hair as he tightens his grip yet again, at least they're each lonely.

They'll be lonely…but at least they have each other. For now, they're lonely together. But just for now, Azula tells herself, because they _will_ see them again. 

They'll see them _all_.

**Author's Note:**

> Why did I write this fic? No idea. It's about 80% indulgence and 20% me losing impulse control. I know I've got other projects to do but I did it anyways. So here you go.
> 
> There's a reference in here somewhere. If you figure it out, you get a cookie.
> 
> Any thoughts you have about this, good or bad, I'd love to hear them!
> 
> If you want to see fandom nonsense, the occasional writing update, and other random bullshit, my Tumblr is [@krastbannert](https://krastbannert.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Be kind out there, my dudes.


End file.
